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1306917

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Complaints
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time was for a complaint submitted to her Department for the (a) case to be assigned to an Independent Case Examiner, (b) investigation to commence and (c) decision to be provided to the complainant in the most recent period for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Newport East
tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
uin	178556
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>At the point the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) Office accept a complaint for investigation, they will initially try to broker a solution between the complainant and the Department or supplier, without having to undertake an investigation – this is known as “resolution”. If the complaint cannot be resolved the evidence will be requested and the case will await allocation to an Investigation Case Manager (ICM). Cases are usually brought into investigation in strict date order. Following a review of the evidence, it may be possible to “settle” the complaint, if agreement can be reached which satisfies the complainant. If the complaint cannot be settled, ICE will issue a report detailing findings and any recommendations for redress. The majority of the complaints that are referred to ICE are complex and require a full investigation.</p><p> </p><p>The Unit received additional resource during 2020/21 financial year to help reduce the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation, but Covid has adversely affected the unit with staff re-deployed to priority front-line activities at the outset of the pandemic and recruitment plans delayed. It has also been affected by Covid-related sickness, self-isolation and bereavement.</p><p> </p><p>For the 2020/21 reporting year, the average Resolution clearance time, from acceptance to case closure, was 6.2 weeks. The average time taken to allocate complaints that required investigation to an ICM, from acceptance to allocation, was 63.8 weeks. The average clearance time for complaints that required investigation (Settlements and ICE Reports), from allocation to an ICM to case closure, was 20.1 weeks.</p><p> </p><p>For the reporting years 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 the average waiting times from case acceptance to case clearance (for all cleared cases) were: 65; 69; and 73 weeks respectively.</p><p> </p><p>For the same reporting years, the single longest waiting times from case acceptance to case clearance in each reporting year were: 134; 153; and 160 weeks respectively. These cases are among the most complex and contentious and in addition may be subject to scrutiny and consideration by the Department before recommendations for redress are settled.</p><p> </p><p>It should be noted that Customer satisfaction with the service is high with 82.6 per cent of customers who respond to the ICE survey stating that they were satisfied with the service they received.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 178958 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:27:23 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

1306928

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Official Statistics entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2020 (experimental), published on 23 February 2021, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 on trends in the number of social security benefit claimants seeking help from food banks in that time period.
tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
uin	178578
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>We have not made any assessment of the effect of the reduction in use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 and have no plans to do so.</p><p> </p><p>We cannot isolate the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions as this has coincided with other changes to conditionality that took place over the same period, for example the three-month suspension of work search and availability requirements and the suspension of face-to-face claimant appointments. Together with the highly atypical economic circumstances we have experienced over this period, this would make any such assessment unreliable.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches will continue to work with claimants to ensure claimant commitments are reasonable for claimants’ circumstances.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 178579 178581 179104 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:40:24 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1306929

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Official Statistics entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2020 (experimental), published on 23 February 2021, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 on social security benefit claimants' (a) work search activity and (b) willingness to take up employment in that time period.
tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
uin	178579
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>We have not made any assessment of the effect of the reduction in use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 and have no plans to do so.</p><p> </p><p>We cannot isolate the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions as this has coincided with other changes to conditionality that took place over the same period, for example the three-month suspension of work search and availability requirements and the suspension of face-to-face claimant appointments. Together with the highly atypical economic circumstances we have experienced over this period, this would make any such assessment unreliable.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches will continue to work with claimants to ensure claimant commitments are reasonable for claimants’ circumstances.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 178578 178581 179104 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:40:24 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1306930

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Official Statistics entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2020 (experimental), published on 23 February 2021, what plans her Department has to conduct a full evaluation of the lessons that can be learnt from the period of running the social security system with little use of such sanctions.
tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
uin	178581
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>We have not made any assessment of the effect of the reduction in use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 and have no plans to do so.</p><p> </p><p>We cannot isolate the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions as this has coincided with other changes to conditionality that took place over the same period, for example the three-month suspension of work search and availability requirements and the suspension of face-to-face claimant appointments. Together with the highly atypical economic circumstances we have experienced over this period, this would make any such assessment unreliable.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches will continue to work with claimants to ensure claimant commitments are reasonable for claimants’ circumstances.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 178578 178579 179104 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:40:24 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1307018

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Jobcentres: Bromsgrove
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what support she is providing to Bromsgrove Jobs Centre to help unemployed people in Bromsgrove District.
tabling member constituency	Bromsgrove
tabling member printed	Sajid Javid
uin	179012
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>Through our Plan for Jobs, the Department is providing broad ranging support for all jobseekers. Currently, support includes the Kickstart scheme, Job Finding Support, Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP) and Job Entry Targeted Support. In addition, the Work and Heath Programme, and Intensive Personalised Employment Support, is available to support to support disabled people and people with long term health conditions, to enter and stay in work.</p><p> </p><p>To support the long term unemployed, £2.9 billion is being invested in the Restart Programme, which is due to go live from summer 2021. The Restart Programme will support individuals who have been unemployed for at least 12 months and through regular, personalised support providers will work with participants to identify the best way to support them into sustained employment. We have also increased the number of Work Coaches, by 13,500 nationally, to support Claimants - with 368 joining our Mercia District by the end of April, including 4 based at Bromsgrove Jobcentre.</p><p> </p><p>Bromsgrove Jobcentre has strong partnership links with the Local Authority with partnership representation on housing, financial inclusion and claimant support forums at both district and county level. It also has strong relations with local providers such as New Starts who have provided laptops to assist with online courses during the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>The Jobcentre team are engaging with Kickstart employers and Gateway organisations to support our younger customers move closer to employment, and have partnered with local employers and organisations to deliver a number of successful Sector Based Work Academy Programmes, across multiple sectors, which are available to all claimants irrespective of age or length of unemployment.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 20/04/2021 16:16:29 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	3945 label Biography information for Sir Sajid Javid

1307034

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Complaints
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting times were for Independent Case Examiner decisions in (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020.
tabling member constituency	Newport East
tabling member printed	Jessica Morden
uin	178958
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>At the point the Independent Case Examiner (ICE) Office accept a complaint for investigation, they will initially try to broker a solution between the complainant and the Department or supplier, without having to undertake an investigation – this is known as “resolution”. If the complaint cannot be resolved the evidence will be requested and the case will await allocation to an Investigation Case Manager (ICM). Cases are usually brought into investigation in strict date order. Following a review of the evidence, it may be possible to “settle” the complaint, if agreement can be reached which satisfies the complainant. If the complaint cannot be settled, ICE will issue a report detailing findings and any recommendations for redress. The majority of the complaints that are referred to ICE are complex and require a full investigation.</p><p> </p><p>The Unit received additional resource during 2020/21 financial year to help reduce the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation, but Covid has adversely affected the unit with staff re-deployed to priority front-line activities at the outset of the pandemic and recruitment plans delayed. It has also been affected by Covid-related sickness, self-isolation and bereavement.</p><p> </p><p>For the 2020/21 reporting year, the average Resolution clearance time, from acceptance to case closure, was 6.2 weeks. The average time taken to allocate complaints that required investigation to an ICM, from acceptance to allocation, was 63.8 weeks. The average clearance time for complaints that required investigation (Settlements and ICE Reports), from allocation to an ICM to case closure, was 20.1 weeks.</p><p> </p><p>For the reporting years 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21 the average waiting times from case acceptance to case clearance (for all cleared cases) were: 65; 69; and 73 weeks respectively.</p><p> </p><p>For the same reporting years, the single longest waiting times from case acceptance to case clearance in each reporting year were: 134; 153; and 160 weeks respectively. These cases are among the most complex and contentious and in addition may be subject to scrutiny and consideration by the Department before recommendations for redress are settled.</p><p> </p><p>It should be noted that Customer satisfaction with the service is high with 82.6 per cent of customers who respond to the ICE survey stating that they were satisfied with the service they received.</p> answering member constituency Hexham answering member printed Guy Opperman grouped question UIN 178556 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:27:23 answering member 4142 label Biography information for Guy Opperman
tabling member	1548 label Biography information for Jessica Morden

1307045

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Official Statistics entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2020 (experimental), published on 23 February 2021, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 on the mental health of social security benefit claimants in that time period.
tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
uin	179104
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>We have not made any assessment of the effect of the reduction in use of benefit sanctions since March 2020 and have no plans to do so.</p><p> </p><p>We cannot isolate the effect of the reduction in the use of benefit sanctions as this has coincided with other changes to conditionality that took place over the same period, for example the three-month suspension of work search and availability requirements and the suspension of face-to-face claimant appointments. Together with the highly atypical economic circumstances we have experienced over this period, this would make any such assessment unreliable.</p><p> </p><p>Work Coaches will continue to work with claimants to ensure claimant commitments are reasonable for claimants’ circumstances.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies grouped question UIN 178578 178579 178581 question first answered 20/04/2021 13:40:24 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1307089

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Social Security Benefits: Disqualification
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Official Statistics entitled Benefit sanctions statistics to October 2020 (experimental), published on 23 February 2021, how many and what proportion of the 4,628 universal credit claimants under sanction in November 2020 had been continuously under such sanctions for more than seven months.
tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
uin	178652
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 20/04/2021 13:31:37 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1307254

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Carcinogens: Health and Safety
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to apply the EU Directive 2019/130 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens from February 2023.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Zarah Sultana
uin	179606
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>EU Directive 2019/130 is the second phase of amendments to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD) 2004/37/EC. While there is no legal obligation for the Government to apply the Directive, we will continue to have a system for setting workplace exposure limits in Great Britain (GB) to ensure worker protection and will consider, and apply as appropriate, relevant limits as part of this.</p> answering member constituency Mid Sussex answering member printed Mims Davies question first answered 20/04/2021 15:00:08 answering member 4513 label Biography information for Mims Davies
tabling member	4786 label Biography information for Zarah Sultana

1307338

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Discretionary Housing Payments: Young People
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people under the age of 25 were refused Discretionary Housing Payment (a) nationally and (b) in each local authority area in (i) 2019 and (ii) 2020.
tabling member constituency	Romsey and Southampton North
tabling member printed	Caroline Nokes
uin	179064
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>As Discretionary Housing Payments are administered by Local Authorities the information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>The most recent data available on Discretionary Housing Payments is the following set of official statistics: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-april-to-september-2020" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/use-of-discretionary-housing-payments-april-to-september-2020</a></p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 20/04/2021 16:03:39 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4048 label Biography information for Caroline Nokes